My home made barrel key collection (& how to)

[kanden]

It is awesome how nice they look. Polished pretty smooth with no signs of mistakes.

[Lauren]

Since no one was able to name the lock manufacturer in my last post, all related pictures will be delayed. Gordon was the only one who played the game, and he himself has yet to cross the finish line.

Moving on.....

Here is my latest Ebay grab with some rare stamping on the back of the lock. The hasp cover is marked "1625 1/2". Once again the lock was obtained in the locked position and without a key.





I used a special key to tension the fence of this Yale padlock while picking it open through the drain hole. The finished brass barrel key took over 6 hours to machine from solid stock material (no welding done here). Imagine spending all this time and possibly not having the key work correctly. The process for decoding the bit cuts was accomplished through a combination of impression marks, reading method of the levers through the key hole as well as through the hasp hole, and impression needles placed on the lever tumblers through the hasp hole. This lock contains only three levers, but was still a challenge to open.





The finish key works beautifully.

[GWiens2001]

Have been trying to research the answer to the challenge game. Unfortunately, my resources for old locks are practically non-existent. But I am learning as I try to figure it out.

Gordon

P.S. That Yale key is beautiful! And that lock it goes to is a great addition to any collection.

[MBI]

I'd have posted a guess, but it would have been a blind stab in the dark. My knowledge of antique locks is sadly deficient.

[jeffmoss26]

SO COOL!!!

[KarkarnRed]

The keys look fantastic, the workmanship is evident. Your collection of old padlocks look equally brilliant, I'd quite like one myself but I think I'd have to get one with the key because creating my own is quite a bit beyond me

[Lauren]

Here is an edited photo of the previous key I made. The red lines depict the outer geometry of the work piece at a particular stage. This stage shows the shape of the key head formed into an "I" shape. The key head thickness was created by flipping the brass stock upside down in the vise while sweeping a carbide rotary file cutter across it in a controlled width. The black lines depict the cutting locations to remove material to form the bit section and to define the key head. This was done using a Dremel mini-cut off disc and arbor. The height of the drill press table was adjusted to make these cuts precisely as the brass stock was hand guided across the table. Once again, the stock piece was flipped upside down to obtain symmetry.

By creating an "I" shaped key head a lot time was saved, and level of the work piece was maintained to the drill press table while cuts were made.

[Lauren]

I have been watching a seller on Ebay trying to sell an Eagle padlock for $15.00 (buy it now) for the last month without any success. This lock has a tear drop chain on the bottom. So when I found a similar lock (also without a key) from another seller in almost new condition for a fraction of the price, I couldn't resist.

I began probing the levers on this lock with a large hook pick, and at first, I thought the lock contained 4 levers. However, Eagle was clever in sandwiching a thin ward plate between the bottom and middle lever tumblers. So the lock actually contains only 3 levers. But as I have learned in the past, even 3 levers can be most challenging. My approach in picking my Eagle padlock was based on what I have seen with similar padlocks. This required the placement of a well fitted torque wrench in the rear of the lock. The torque wrench was inserted accordingly in the rear of the lock, and the padlock was lay flush on top of a machine vise with the torque wrench clamped in the vise. A thin piece of material was also used to resist scratching on the lock.

At first, I was getting some nice lever set while the lock was under rotational tension attached to the vise. But I kept getting lever set at different places and I was really putting a lot of stress on my hook pick to move the levers. I decided to make a pry bar from wiper blade material. The levers were beginning to show evidence of having serrated edges, which is a technique manufactures use to cause false lever set.

I also wanted some other advantage in picking this lock besides the use of a pry bar. I learned that a small wire with a 90 degree tip could be inserted through the key way just underneath the face of the lock cover. This wire tool was rotated and gradually inserted on top the first lever to catch the lever's gate. And, the process continued until the tool rotated 90 degrees to catch the gate of the second lever tumbler. Many of you reading this might miss what I just described, but essentially I bridged two lever tumblers together set to a controlled depth, turning my lock into a 2 lever lock. Now, with everything in place I used my pry bar to set the bottom lever tumbler. I could really feel the serrations grinding against the fence. When the grinding stopped, I knew I had correctly set the lever. This technique worked perfectly and the hasp popped open.

With the lock open, I was able to read the lever stack from the hasp hole and I quickly observed that the top and bottom lever tumblers were at the same elevation. I used some brass plate to fashion a cool looking key blank, which I ultimately used to impression the levers and make a working key. The ward plate was the first cut to be made. It made obvious impression marks.

[GWiens2001]

Incredible work. Am going to have to get some more of these older locks and start practicing... once I catch up with the other lock related projects sitting around.

Gordon

[Lauren]

This old Eagle padlock is the exact type of lock that I enjoy collecting (the ones without keys). The lock has a nice weight and beautiful patina. As an added bonus, I have two well marked patent dates on the hasp (Sept. 4, 1894 and a re-issue date of Jan. 22, 1895). By the way, Sept. 4th was the date that this thread began. This lock originally had some nice pronounced circular machine marks on the body. There is some trace evidence of it still.

Like my prior post, this Eagle padlock has a ward plate above the last lever tumbler. The lock appears to be a 5 lever tumbler lock. This lock was picked by applying hasp tension with my index finger while using a medium hook pick. Some of the picking was also done through the rear of the key way. When all the levers are properly aligned the locking dog drops down automatically. There is no rear cam on this lock behind the lever stack, which is why hasp tension works. One unique aspect of this lock can be seen when impression is used to make a key. The key blank will trip a side cam and reset the locking dog. To prevent this from happening, I had to cork the hasp hole while the lock was open. This blocks the locking dog and freezes the lever tumbler stack.

[jeffmoss26]

Lauren, I thought of you when this box of old padlocks showed up earlier in the week!

[Lauren]

The smoke house lock will be a bit of challenge, but I try to stay away from them because of spring and bolt rust out problems. The other two bronze locks should be simple to make keys for.

[jeffmoss26]

Yeah, I could imagine that one being a pain. The one on the right is warded. Speaking of which, I never did find that Yale padlock I was going to send you :/

[femurat]

I learned that a small wire with a 90 degree tip could be inserted through the key way just underneath the face of the lock cover. This wire tool was rotated and gradually inserted on top the first lever to catch the lever's gate. And, the process continued until the tool rotated 90 degrees to catch the gate of the second lever tumbler. Many of you reading this might miss what I just described, but essentially I bridged two lever tumblers together set to a controlled depth, turning my lock into a 2 lever lock.

Great idea! Your description makes it look so easy... I've never thought about doing so. Thanks for this suggestion, I'll keep it in mind and try it out when I have the occasion.

Cheers

[Lauren]

Femurat, Now I know someone actually reads the fine print. I applied some of the same principals I taught myself in decoding the Milller "Champion" pancake padlocks. I had no idea what result I was going to get when I first tried probing the lock. Usually, I have to have lock apart to find backdoor techniques, but I got lucky and I found the gates. Thanks for the feedback.